The embattled former Obamacare architect, Jonathan Gruber, has said that the federal healthcare program had no cost controls in it and would not be affordable, The Daily Caller reported.

"The problem is it starts to go hand in hand with the mandate; you can't mandate insurance that's not affordable. This is going to be a major issue," Gruber said in a 2009 policy brief.

"So what's different this time? Why are we closer than we've ever been before? Because there are no cost controls in these proposals. Because this bill's about coverage. Which is good! Why should we hold 48 million uninsured people hostage to the fact that we don't yet know how to control costs in a politically acceptable way? Let's get the people covered and then let's do cost control."

Gruber recently testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after video footage emerged of him saying that the "stupidity of the American voter" and "lack of transparency" were key to passing the Affordable Care Act. He is due to appear before the committee again in the new year.

President Barack Obama tried to distance the administration from Gruber, describing him as "some adviser who never worked on our staff" but it was later discovered that Gruber was paid almost $400,000 by the Obama administration for his work in crafting Obamacare.

In the policy brief, Gruber also said that the only way it would be possible to control costs is to effectively deny patients treatment.

"The real substance of cost control is all about a single thing: telling patients they can't have something they want. It's about telling patients, 'That surgery doesn't do any good, so if you want it you have to pay the full cost,'" he said.

"There's no reason the American health care system can't be, 'You can have whatever you want, you just have to pay for it.' That's what we do in other walks of life. We don't say everyone has to have a large screen TV. If you want a large screen TV, you have to pay for it. Basically the notion would be to move to a level where everyone has a solid basic insurance level of coverage. Above that people pay on their own, without tax-subsidized dollars, to buy a higher level of coverage."

Gruber also said that President Barack Obama was aware that the healthcare bill was unlikely to control costs, despite the president's claims to the contrary, according to the Caller.

"I wish that President Obama could have stood up and said, 'You know, I don't know if this bill is going to control costs. It might, it might not. We're doing our best. But let me tell you what it's going to do," Gruber said on a 2012 podcast, according to the Caller.

"If he could make that speech? Instead, he says 'I'm going to pass a bill that will lower your health care costs.' That sells. Now, I wish the world was different. I wish people cared about the 50 million uninsured in America…But, you know, they don't. And I think, once again, I'm amazed politically that we got this bill through."